"It's such a big decision. It would have been good to have had a public meeting about it.

"To just assume ratepayers wouldn't be willing pay any more rates... I would absolutely be willing to pay."

Reader poll

Would you pay higher rates if it meant your recycling wouldn't go landfill?

This poll ended on 26 April 2018.

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Absolutely, I care about the environment

62%

No, we already pay enough in rates

33%

I don't care either way

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Cr Antoniolli today said the council had tried over several months to negotiate with its contractor but that continuing with recycling would have cost an extra $2 million.

To cover those costs, rates would need to rise between 1.5% to 2%.

That equates to a few dollars extra for each household, Cr Antoniolli said today.

But he warned, that figure could increase in the coming years and simply paying the extra cost wasn't a solution given contamination rates were so high - at 52%, where the contractor would only take material at a rate of 25%.

"At the end of the day we have to look at how we will rationalise our services and obviously what impact that will have on rates," Cr Antoniolli said. "We cannot afford to put our rates up by 2% purely and simply for recycling. It's unaffordable and it's unsustainable."

For Mr Redman that justification wasn't good enough.

"When I found out I was sad, angry, devastated," Mr Redman said.

"Over 18 years I have lived here, there has been little information from the council about recycling.

"I wasn't even aware contamination was an issue here.

"(Contamination) is a difficult issue but once again, I wonder if people were told, or challenged, about it... if the council had explained why it matters so much, whether that rate could have changed?"